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TECHNIQUES OF INVESTIGATION AND CURRENT CONCEPTS IN THE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF SEX STEROID ACTION Many analytical techniques are currently in use by various laboratories where sex steroid action (androgens, estrogens, progestins) is being studied in regard to both physiological and behavioral regulation of the reproductive potential of the organism. Experiments conducted during the past 10 years, using the techniques of ablation or localized hormone implantation clearly demonstrate that many regulatory functions exerted by hormones occur via interactions at the level of the central nervous system. Direct evidence that hormones do regulate the functions assigned to them requires the ability to directly monitor blood levels of hormone in order to show that hormones are present at the times and in the patterns necessary for regulation of the function under study. How does a hormone interact with its target tissue? What parameters of this interaction can we measure and how can one relate these measurements to the mode of action of the hormone? Current developments in gas chromatography, radio- immunoassays, and protein binding assays, methods in electrophysiology for simultaneous measurement of EEG and unit activity, and biochemical analysis for measuring hormone retention by tissues offer a battery of highly sensitive analytical techniques which are providing new insight concerning hormone functions since studies in the individual intact organism are possible. Each contributor discusses a broad spectrum of studies relating to the technique he presents. This approach should have a wide interdisciplinary usefulness to behaviorists, physiologists, and biochemists. This symposium was arranged by Robert D. Lisk, Department of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, for the Division of Comparative Endocrinology. It was presented Tuesday, December 29, 1970, at Chicago, Illinois, as part of the meetings of the American Society of Zoologists with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. CONTENTS JOHN A. RESKO WALTER E. STUMPF BARRY R. KOMISARUK ROBERT D. LISK Micromethods for estimating sex steroids in plasma: One method for investigating hormone action 715 Autoradiographic techniques and the localization of estrogen, androgen, and glucocorticoid in the pituitary and brain 725 Strategies in neuroendocrine neurophysiology 741 The physiology of hormone receptors 713 755